


Five Times Freddy hugged Billy (and one time Billy hugged Freddy)

by SapphireLuna8768610



Category: Shazam! (2019)
Genre: 5+1 Things, Anxiety Attacks, Author Is Sleep Deprived, Billy and Freddy centric, Billy is a jerk and Freddy is a cutie pie, Blood Loss, Blood and Injury, Brother Feels, Brotherly Bonding, Crying, Don’t think this has been done yet, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Guilt, Guilty Freddy Freeman, Heavy Angst, Hooray for sleep deprivation and no regrets!, Hugs, Hurt Billy Batson, I Don't Even Know, I Tried, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, I love them both, I'm Bad At Summaries, I'm Bad At Tagging, I'm Sorry, Insomnia, Major Character Injury, Nervousness, Night Terrors, Please Don't Hate Me, Shazam Family, Slow To Update, The Author Regrets Nothing, Their brotherly relationship is so precious please tell me I’m not the only one who loves it so much, This fam will be the end of me, Welp no sleep for me, What Have I Done, Why Did I Write This?, Worried Freddy Freeman, XD, dont worry I get sleep tho, don’t kill me, hopefully not, i love this fam, please enjoy, protective freddy, sometimes, yay
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-08
Updated: 2019-09-13
Packaged: 2020-07-10 15:22:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,231
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19907899
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SapphireLuna8768610/pseuds/SapphireLuna8768610
Summary: The title explains it all. I rated this T just to be safe, sometimes it gets hard to describe blood or injury without it being a little graphic. If you're a little queasy to that, I suggest either not reading or just scrolling past the scene. If you're not, please enjoy!  米＾－＾米





	1. I. Inferno

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Billy, you heard what that guy said. The building's going to collapse any minute. If you go back in there, it'll take you with it. Leave this one to the guys." Freddy stated.
> 
> Shazam frowned. "I'll be fine." He insisted, yanking his arm out of Freddy's grip and ignoring how Freddy called after him as he flew off. 
> 
> "Billy. Billy!" Freddy called in frustration.

I. Inferno

Billy was sitting next to Freddy on the couch, Mary was sitting in an arm chair with Darla on her lap and Pedro and Eugene were sitting on the floor, all watching the television. Billy switched between each channel in boredom, elbow resting on the arm of the couch and cheek resting in his hand. He finally settled for the news and turned it on. 

He sat straight up, eyes widening and his heart skipped a few beats at the sight before him. 

An apartment building not too far from them in the city was on fire, and a bad one, too. Some firefighters were doing their best to put it out while others were pushing people back to prevent them from entering. 

Most who were trying to get past the firefighters were screaming things like, "My friend's in there!" Or "Let me through, I have to save my sister!" Or "Why aren't you doing your jobs!? Get in there and save my husband!" And so on. 

The headline on the screen read: "Local citizen goes insane and sets whole apartment building on fire! Man got away, leaving many people trapped inside the burning building. Where is Red Cyclone and his superhero companions??"

Billy turned the TV off and glanced at his siblings who were all looking at each other, including at him. 

Mary was the first to speak, "God...that looked horrible. Those people looked like they were really upset, they must be so worried about their loved ones." 

Freddy swallowed. "Sha-you-know-what-it?" He asked with a forming grin. 

The others grinned in agreement and Billy nodded. "yeah. Let's hurry though. That inferno seemed like it was getting worse by the minute." 

Victor and Rosa were out running errands up North, so they wouldn't be back until at least another half-hour. Perfect opportunity for Billy and the others. They would be back before the duo, so Victor and Rosa wouldn't know they were even gone in the first place. 

Walking outside, the group shouted "SHAZAM!" 

Once they were in their superhero forms, they were instantly off. 

* * *

"Thank _God_ you're all here." 

"It's our pleasure to be here. How may we be of assistance in this situation?"

One of the firefighters looked up at them with big, desperate eyes. "This fire is insane. It's out of control. I think my men can handle it with attempting to calm it down. For now. But so many are trapped in there and their loved ones are worried sick. Please heroes, I know this is asking a lot, but do you think you can help get those poor people out?" 

"Of course! We'll do our best." Mary smiles softly. 

The firefighter grins wordlessly in gratitude before rushing to join his men in attempting to extinguish the raging inferno. 

"Wow. That's one hell of a fire," Freddy states whilst gazing up at the building. 

"yeah," Mary agrees, frowning in concern. "How are we supposed to get in?"

"We'll find a way." Billy assures and turns to them. "Alright, so here's the plan. We find a way in, and once we save the people trapped inside," he points at a vacant, narrow alley across the street. "We meet in that alley and change back. Got it?" 

"Got it" The others said in unison and all flew off to find ways inside. 

Billy sighed to himself, eyeing the building before him. There was a way to get in, he knew there was. Besides, it couldn't be that hard. There were at least six floors. 

When he finally did find a way in, he was instantly greeted by the sight of flames everywhere and smoke filling his nostrils. Cringing at the scene laid out before him, he swallowed and hoped he wasn't too late to save the people trapped in here. 

After flying around for a short while and calling out if anyone needed help, he felt himself relax once he stumbled across some groups of people. Some were closer together whilst others were more spread out, but despite this they were all thankfully very much still alive. 

He was able to carry three people out at a time to their families in record speed, catching his siblings doing the same in the corner of his eye. 

Some time later, Billy carried the last child out to their family where they all tearfully embraced. Everyone was cheering for the heroes. 

Shazam flew off towards the alley where Freddy and the others were already in their civilian forms. 

Mary grinned proudly and held her fist out. "Nice job, everybody." 

They all fist-bumped and complimented one another. 

"can we go home now? I'm hungry" Darla smiled sheepishly and everyone else laughed. 

Shazam was about to switch back himself, however he froze when he heard a shrill scream in the distance, the source being from the same apartment building. 

His siblings heard it as well, as they looked just as bewildered as he did. 

Without a closer thought, the group went back over to get a closer look. 

Shazam's eyes widened, realizing it was the same father and daughter he had saved during his final battle with Sivana at the Christmas Carnival. 

The little girl was crying heavily, tears streaming down her face and she was trying to pull away from her father. 

"My tiger! My tiger's in there Daddy, I have to go save him!" She sobbed desperately, pulling at her arm. 

"Sweetheart please," her father breathed. "I'll get you a new tiger, would you like that? I'll get you a new one, I promise." 

The little girl merely shook her head as she sobbed harder, "No you don't get it, he's _special_! The red superhero gave it to me!" 

The man cursed under his breath helplessly and glanced over his shoulder as he felt a firefighter rest a hand on his back. 

"Sir, I'm afraid you're going to have to step away. This building is going to collapse any minute." He stated, glancing somewhat sympathetically at the little girl.

Seeing her father somewhat distracted, the child took this opportunity to escape her father's grasp, running into the collapsing, burning building. 

" _HONEY!_ " The man yelled, aghast and instantly tried to follow her, however he was immediately held up by the firefighters holding him back. 

"Hey man, that's my daughter! Let me through!" He exclaimed in protest, fighting against the men.

Shazam was about to fly into action until he felt a hand gripping his arm. He gazed down to find that Freddy was the source. 

"Dude, what do you think you're doing?" Freddy questioned quietly.

Shazam narrowed his brows at him, "What's it look like I'm doing? I'm going to save that little girl." 

"Billy, you heard what that guy said. The building's going to collapse any minute. If you go back in there, it'll take you with it. Leave this one to the guys." 

Shazam frowned. "I'll be _fine_." He insists, yanking his arm out of Freddy's grip and ignoring how Freddy called after him as he flew off. 

"Billy. _Billy_!" Freddy called in frustration.

Shazam instantly spotted a way inside and flew right in. He walked around rapidly, calling out for the young child. 

"Little girl! Little girl, are you in here!?" Shazam calls out, hands cupped around his mouth. 

There's no answer. Shazam called out a few more times only to get the same response. Nothing. The red clad superhero was beginning to lose hope and beginning to feel dread.

Had he been too late....?

He had heard about superheroes failing to save those in need. Plenty of times. Some were young and others were old, but Billy supposed what really made him feel bad was when he heard about the really young ones. 

"The good die young" is what he heard people say. It didn't change the ache he felt in his heart. This girl couldn't have been older than six. 

All he knew was it always crushed a superhero to fail to save someone for the first time. 

Shazam only hoped _his_ first time wasn't today. 

As he passed a corner, he stopped in his tracks. Miraculously, he heard a sound. From what he could make out, it sounded like a sob. At first he thought he was hearing things, but he quickly doubted that when he heard another sob, and multiple others follow it.

"Hello?" He called out softly, swallowing thickly. "Little girl? Where are you?"

Another sob, shorter than the others and then, "I'm in here. Please help me, I'm so scared..."

Relief filled Shazam and he spoke again. "Keep talking to me, okay? I'll find you." 

"Okay..." 

Shazam bit his lip, thinking about what to say. He was never good at conversations. He was more of a listener. Even with Freddy, despite how close they had gotten over the last two months, he never really had much to say when the raven-haired teen would engage with him, mainly out of fear of saying the wrong things. Freddy didn't seem to mind it though and was apparently grateful, because Freddy had once told him that the brunette was someone he could really vent to and count on to listen. 

Billy had pushed the topic. 

_"What do you mean?" Billy had asked Freddy the night the younger teen had told him that. He was leaning against the counter behind Freddy, watching him scrub dishes._

_Freddy paused in drying off the plate in his hands. He hesitated a few heartbeats before answering, gazing out the window._

_"I've...never really had anyone to open up to," Freddy admitted quietly, resuming drying the plate off and putting it next to the others before grabbing a new one to clean._

_"...Mainly because I've never had too many friends." Freddy snorted. "More like none. Until you came along. Don't get me wrong, I have Mary and she's great, but as weird as this sounds she doesn't really understand like you do. I guess...you know exactly what to say without saying it. Whether it be a smile, a glare, etc. Again I know it sounds weird, and I understand that you don't feel the same way but you really are my best friend and I'll shut up now because this is getting awkward." Freddy rambled and silence hung in the air._

_Billy stood there for a few moments before pushing himself off the countertop and walked up beside his brother, grabbing a dish and washing it himself._

_"Funny," he utters with a small smile forming and Freddy glances at him. Billy meets his gaze. "I don't recall ever saying you **weren't** my best friend." _

_Freddy smiles gratefully at him and Billy assists his brother in doing the dishes whilst listening to him chatter about Superman._

"What's your name?" Shazam finds himself saying, doing his best to follow her voice. 

"Lillie-Anne." Lillie-Anne replies softly, sounding like she's calmed down and once again Shazam was profoundly grateful. He sucked at comforting people. "But I like to be called Lillie. Lillie-Anne feels too formal for me to be called all the time." 

"I get it," Shazam nods. He could relate because his mother would constantly call him his full name, William half the time growing up. Then again she was annoyed or angry half the time. After he was separated from her, he preferred to be called just Billy and refused to reveal his full name to anyone. Mainly because of the way his mother had said it so _spitefully_ , like it was a curse on her tongue. It had led to him disliking his full name strongly. 

Besides Victor and Rosa, Freddy was the only one who knew his full name. He wasn't ready for anyone else to know. He'd tell everyone else. Eventually. 

"I think I'm almost there," Shazam stated with a smile. "So, uhm...what are you and your dad doing here in a hotel?"

"Well..." Lillie started then paused, sounding hesitant. 

Shazam's smile dropped at her silence and was about to tell her that she didn't have to tell him, but Lillie beat him to the punch. 

"Mommy and Daddy are usually really happy. But lately all they've been doing is yelling and screaming. They decided they need space from one another after the last fight two nights ago so Mommy let Daddy take me and we ended up here. I keep telling myself everything's going to be okay, but I'm not so sure...I'm scared....I just want Mommy and Daddy to be happy again..." 

Shazam heard Lillie start to cry again and he felt useless. How he wished Mary was with him right now. She was so much better at these types of things then she was. 

He followed the sound of her sobs and found her a second later, curled up on the bed next to her tiger in a quickly burning up room, tears streaking her cheeks. 

Lillie's eyes lit up once she saw him. "You found me!" She exclaimed and grabbing her tiger, she ran forward and jumped into the superhero's waiting arms. 

Shazam snorted softly as he felt her wrap an arm around his neck while the other gripped her tiger. 

"I see you've taken real good care of the tiger," he noted in amusement. 

Lillie pulled back and beamed at him. "Yeah! I love him! Thank you so much for giving him to me!!" 

"No pro--" 

Shazam's reply was cut off by a rumble, the entire building shaking and large pieces of the ceiling falling to the ground. 

Shazam cursed under his breath and Lillie yelped in fear, pressing her face to his neck. 

The red clad superhero noticed her distress and turned to her. 

"Hey. Look at me." He said, not unkindly. "I need you to look at me. Can you do that for me?" 

Lillie sniffled and after a moment of hesitance, met his eyes with a watery gaze. 

Shazam exhaled, "You're going to be okay. I'm going to get you and Mr. Tiger out of here and to safety. As far as your parents go, just hang in there. Regardless of what you have to go through, if you embrace the pain and let it help you grow, I promise you'll be happy in the end. Alright?" 

Lillie processed his words before smiling with a cute giggle. "Okay mister superhero guy, I trust you."

Shazam's smile returned. "Good. Now let's get you and Mr. Tiger out of here. From what I've heard, your dad's pretty worried." 

* * *

Outside, Freddy, his siblings and the rest of the civilians watched the apartment building apprehensively.

The flames continued to eat away at the building repeatedly. Suddenly, the whole building collapsed and people screamed as they moved out of the way.

Mary jumped and pushed her younger siblings behind her as she backed up as well.

Firefighters rushed over and finally managed to extinguish the remains of the insane fire.

Ice cold dread settled itself in Freddy's gut, a feeling he quickly learned to despise.

Freddy looked at Mary, swallowing hard. "Billy, is he...?" He started to ask but cut himself off, unable to finish.

Mary merely shook her head. "I don't know," she murmurs. "Let's hope not."

Once the smoke clears, the group spots a little girl, the same little girl Billy was trying to save and had apparently succeeded in saving because she was running forward with tiger in hand, jumping into her relieved father's arms. 

Whilst Freddy and the others were smiling at the scene, Darla glanced over her shoulder and gasped, eyes lighting up and grabbing her siblings' attention. 

"I see Billy! Look, he's over there!" She exclaims happily, pointing. 

The others follow her gaze and sure enough, there Billy Batson was making his way over to him from the alley, completely unscathed and safe. 

Relief floods all of their veins. 

A grin plasters itself across Freddy's face and the raven haired made his way over to him, the brunette stopping in his tracks as Freddy reached him and hugged him tightly. 

"dude, you're _alive_ ," Freddy chuckled tearfully in relief, giving a small squeeze. 

Billy stood there awkwardly, hands hovering above Freddy's back. He swallowed and hesitantly returned the embrace, arms wrapped around the younger loosely. 

The teen glanced up as his other siblings approached them and hugged him as well, turning it into a big group hug and making the boy feel even more uncomfortable yet oddly...warm. 

"holy moly," Billy utters once they finally exited the embrace. "That fire sure left some damage behind." 

"yeah," Freddy agrees, but gives Billy an incredulous look a heartbeat later. 

"Hold up, Billy did you just say _holy moly_? What is this, the 80's?" 

Billy glares at him, "Shut the hell up, Freeman." 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wooooo this took me a while, but totally worth it! I hope you all enjoyed my new story and please review, reviews help a lot. If I get positive feedback I'll definitely continue. (^○^)
> 
> Imma go to sleep now. Again hope you enjoyed. 'Til next time! (°ω°)


	2. II. Injury

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "I'm sorry," Freddy said thickly, fighting tears. "It's all my fault. We were out later than usual, we ran into trouble with some punks. I wasn't paying attention, one was about to attack me but Billy saved me and he got hurt. I'm so sorry."

_II. Injury_

_It's my fault. It's my fault. It's my fault....It's my fault....It's my fault....It's my fault...It's my fault..._

That's what Freddy Freeman told himself over and over. He should've been better. He should've been _quicker_. 

It was all his fault. All his fault that Billy was in the state he was now. 

They were fighting another super villain. Freddy had to admit that this was one of the worst. 

The enemy was about to unleash an attack on Freddy and if it hadn't been for Billy screaming his name and shoving him out of the way, he would've been severely injured. 

_But that's how it should've been,_ Freddy thought in painful frustration. _It should've been me, not Billy._

Unfortunately the villain had gotten away, but Freddy and the others cared less.

They'd beat his ass for hurting their brother another day.

Usually the injuries on Shazam wouldn't transfer over to the closed-off Billy Batson, but these injuries were pretty serious. 

Billy had been bleeding profusely, but they had managed to get the teen to mutter 'Shazam' before he lost consciousness. 

Freddy ordered the others to meet him at the hospital while he took Billy to Rosa and Victor. 

_Freddy landed a few yards away from the house, 'Shazam' shakily leaving his lips._

_The boy limped toward the home, Billy in arms as he reached one of his hands up, ringing the doorbell._

_After two minutes Rosa answered the door, smile dying on her lips at the sight of the injured and unconscious Billy in his arms._

_"Freddy, mi amor what happened?" Rosa frowned worriedly, cupping Billy's cold cheek._

_"I'm sorry," Freddy told her thickly, fighting tears. "It's all my fault. We were out later than usual, we ran into some trouble with a few punks. I wasn't paying attention, one was about to attack me but Billy saved me and he got hurt. I'm so sorry, this is all my fault."_

_Rosa shook her head, "No novio, please don't say that. You couldn't have known. Billy's going to be okay."_

_The woman called for Victor over her shoulder before returning her attention to Freddy._

_"What about you, cariño? Are you alright? Where are the others?"_

_Freddy shook his head. "I'm fine, Rosa. It's Billy we need to be concentrating on. Mary and the others are at the hospital right now. They're okay too."_

_Rosa nodded. Victor came up from behind her and stood beside his wife. The brunette explained the situation to him._

_"I'll go start the van," Victor stated seriously. He frowned. "Freddy, where's your cane?"_

_Said teen cringed, remembering that he accidentally left his crutch when they went out for patrol._

_"I--I accidentally left it here when we went out." He mumbled shamefully._

_Victor seemed confused, and rightfully so. Freddy could see in his eyes that the man was wondering how the hell he managed to walk. Little did Victor know that in his superhero form he was free; he wasn't crippled. The raven haired boy hadn't thought about the possibility of something like this happening, so he supposed it must have slipped his mind._

_Despite all of this and the weird look Victor gave him, the man turned on his heel and jogged inside and up the stairs._

_Not nearly a minute later, he emerged with Freddy's crutch in hand._

_Victor handed the crutch to Rosa and held out his arms for Billy._

_"I'll take him," he said softly._

_Freddy hesitated at first, but handed the older teen to his foster father._

_Victor gave him a reassuring smile that he couldn't find in him to return._

_The man turned and stepped off the porch, carrying his unconscious son out to the van._

_Rosa handed the curly haired boy his crutch and pulled him against her gently._

_"It's going to be okay compañero," she whispered soothingly, pressing a kiss to his hair. "I promise."_

_Freddy didn't say anything, merely leaning into her touch mutely._

Now here he was, sitting in a cold hospital chair in between Mary and Pedro, holding Darla on his lap who had fallen asleep against his chest. Mary had fallen asleep too, head resting on her younger brother's shoulder. 

Rosa and Victor were holding hands, standing by Eugene who sat in the last chair at the end. 

Freddy was beginning to doze off himself when he heard Victor say in a relieved voice, "Doctor, thank God you're here." 

Freddy nearly jumped in anticipation, whole body waking up. 

The boy turned and nudged Mary awake--perhaps a little too roughly--before gently shaking Darla by the shoulders. 

Once everyone was awake, they all watched the adults talk intently. 

"How's Billy? Is he alright?" Rosa questioned with deep concern. 

The doctor nodded. "Yes, he'll be just fine. However, I would like to note a few major injuries..." 

Freddy's mind was buzzing. His mind drifted in and out as he listened to the doctor's explanation. All he heard was that Billy had three right bruised ribs, four fractured left ribs and second degree burns near his stomach area. He was sure there was more, but he forced himself to not listen any further. 

Things must be okay overall, because the doctor was grinning and allowed Rosa who laughed in relief to hug him, returning the embrace. 

"Can we see him?" Victor asked. 

The doctor nodded a second time. "Yes, but only one at a time. Any more than that is running the risk of stressing him out. He just woke up a few minutes ago, so he's going to be a little tired to start with." 

Rosa smiled happily, "Alright. Thank you so much, doctor." 

The doctor patted both of their shoulders before walking off. 

"How's Billy?" Mary asked, standing as Rosa and Victor approached them. 

"He's got quite a few injuries, but nothing a little bit of time won't fix." Rosa smiled reassuringly and they all let out sighs of relief. 

"Is he awake? Can we see him?" Eugene was the next to ask. 

Victor nodded, "He's awake, but only one at a time, kids. He's tired and we don't wanna stress him out." 

Freddy glanced at his siblings, as if asking some sort of unspoken question. They smiled at the teen, saying yes to whatever he was asking for. 

Freddy gazed at his foster mother shyly, "Can I, uhm...can I go first?" 

Rosa looked at her boy and gave an understanding grin. "Of course you can." She murmured softly and gave a light squeeze to his shoulders. "Take as long as you two need. We'll be right out here if you need us." 

Freddy nodded, grateful that Rosa understood he needed some alone time with Billy. Though it wouldn't surprise him if she knew her boys needed some time alone before he even asked. The fact that she could just read her loved ones was what he admired most about her. 

Freddy walked away from Rosa and Mary pulled him into a tight hug. 

"He's okay now," she whispered. "Billy's okay. You saved him, Freddy. You did good." 

The raven haired shook his head, a single tear sliding down his freckled cheek. 

"But what if I hadn't?" He rasped. "What if I was too late? What if he--"

Mary shushed him, not unkindly. "Let's not think about that, okay? What matters is that _didn't_ happen. The worst is over now. It's gonna be okay, I promise." 

Freddy sniffed slightly and quickly wiped his face as Mary let go of him. 

He swallowed hard. Heart pounding in anticipation, he made his way towards Billy's room. Victor opened and held the door, allowing Freddy to walk inside. Apprehension flooded him as the door clicked shut behind him. 

Billy was awake, green eyes gazing at the pristine white ceiling above him. The brunette noticed Freddy when he walked over to the side of the bed and slowly sat down in an empty chair. 

"Hey," Freddy mumbles softly, hands clutching at his jeans so hard his knuckles turned white. He swallowed. "How're you feeling?" 

Billy smirks lightly, "They got me so doped up on pain meds I can't feel a thing." He stated and let out a small laugh. 

Freddy couldn't find it in him to smile or laugh back. He dropped his gaze to his jeans for a few heartbeats. 

The other teen picked up on his odd behavior and instantly felt perplexed and uncomfortable. He sensed something was up with the younger and didn't know how to go about approaching him on it. The poor boy swallowed thickly. He was never good at these types of things. He only hoped Freddy wouldn't make it hard on him. 

An uncomfortable silence hung in the air. 

Billy awkwardly cleared his throat, "So, uhm..." he started. "Are--Are the others okay?" 

Freddy nodded. "The others have less major injuries so they'll be fine." 

Billy raised a brow at him, concern pulling at his gut roughly. "And you?" 

Freddy let out a bitter chuckle at this, " _Me_? Of course I'm okay, I'm not the one on the hospital bed." 

Billy frowned. "Freddy--" he tried, only to be cut off. 

"It was my fault." Freddy stated. "My fault you got hurt, my fault you're the way you are now. You should've saved yourself."

It was Billy's turn to laugh, shaking his head. "Sorry, I'm hoping it's my mind imagining things but I could've sworn you said you wanted me to let _you_ take the blow." 

"I _did_ ," Freddy mumbled somewhat impatiently. 

Billy scowled at him. "Freddy, what's done is done and if I could go back I'd do it all over again. I'm not having this conversation with you right now." 

"You could have died!" Freddy blurted louder than Billy would have liked. 

The brunette shot him a look. "And _you_ would have been in better condition?" 

Before Freddy could answer, Billy held up a hand and spoke softer, "Look dude, if I wasn't chosen by the wizard and if being Shazam hadn't taught me to be a better person, and if I was still out on the streets searching for my mom and looking out for just myself and a life or death choice came my way and I had to choose between you, a random guy I barely know or me living, I probably would have chosen me, yeah. But that's the thing. I'm _not_ looking out for just me anymore. I'm looking out for you guys too now. And I'd be lying if I didn't say that I would rather die then let one of you or all of you die or get severely injured, because when push comes to shove I'm always going to make sure it's me and not you." 

Billy swallowed and looked away, "When we were arguing a while back, you asked me if I saw you. And told me that most people don't because they don't want to, and that I didn't want to either." 

"What about it?" Freddy questions, unsure of where Billy was going with this. 

"You never did tell me what you meant by that." 

Freddy visibly flinched. "Funny, I thought what I said was pretty self-explanatory." 

Billy shrugged, "Yeah, but I wanna hear it from you." 

Freddy huffed, but muttered nevertheless, "I dunno...I guess I've always been desperate for people to notice me, desperate for their acceptance. But you know, of course they never did at least not in the way I wanted them to. They would always laugh at me, make fun of me or give me disgusted looks, regarding me like some kind of.... _parasite._ I guess I was hoping you were different when you came along, which is why I wanted you to start paying attention to me as well. It really sucked that you were dickish as both Billy Batson and Shazam, after a while I started wondering if it was me..."

Freddy trailed off and Billy shook his head, instantly regretting the action as it hissed in protest and he inwardly flinched at the wave of pain briefly passing through him. 

Billy waited for the pain that lasted ten seconds to pass before opening his mouth. 

"No, it wasn't you Freddy," Billy sighed. "Honestly, it's a little hard to see anyone else when I can barely see myself. My heart was set upon finding my mother, it was all I could think about day in and day out. For _years_. Which I can promise you is _not_ the best feeling. Once I found her..." 

Memories flooded back to Billy and he cut himself off, avoiding Freddy's questioning gaze. 

Shaking the painful feeling, he swallowed and glanced at his brother. 

That was a story for another day. 

"Guess what I'm _trying_ to say is," Billy snickered in spite of himself. "'M sorry for being such an ass every since I got here. Oh, and by the way stop blaming yourself. I already told you that I'd do it the same way all over again if I got the chance, I meant it then and I still do now." 

The brunette dared a small smile. "Are we good?" 

Freddy snorted, blinking against the warm wetness in his eyes. "Dude you gave me my dream, invited my idol to lunch with us, saved all of us tonight and didn't die in the process. Of course we are." 

Freddy looked at his lap whilst biting on his trembling lip. "I mean you're still my brother. An asshole of one sometimes but y'know what I mean." He joked weakly. 

Billy laughed at this, ignoring the way his ribs ached a little as they vibrated. 

It was silent for a few minutes. Freddy suddenly pulled himself out of his chair and Billy watched him curiously. 

The raven haired boy sat himself down on the edge of the bed and without a word, leaned down and hugged the elder teen tightly whilst making sure to be gentle with Billy's injuries. 

Billy froze in shock in the latter's hold. He was never one for hugs, hell, he didn't even like being _touched_ all that much. 

The only people in the Vasquez home he allowed to hug him so far was Rosa and Darla, maybe even Mary. 

Feeling how the younger boy clung to him, shaking ever so slightly, Billy came to the conclusion that Freddy _needed_ the comfort of this embrace and perhaps Billy did too. 

Slowly but surely, the teen returned the hug with the strength he had in his weakened state, smiling a little as he could've sworn he felt Freddy melt even more into him. 

Billy was finally able to close his eyes in content. 

Everything will be okay. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Billy deserved so much better than who he got for a mom...(¬_¬)
> 
> Good thing he has the Vasquez Family! (ღ˘⌣˘ღ)
> 
> Hope you enjoyed! Keep up the Kudos and Comments are greatly appreciated! Requests/Ideas would be great for this and for future stories as well, if you have any please place them in comments. Til' next time! ★~(◠ω◕✿)


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